The Library of Africa and The African Diaspora (LOATAD) has announced the writers chosen for the 2025 LOATAD Black Atlantic Residency.
Supported by the Hawthornden Foundation, this year’s theme, African Solidarities, celebrates writers who embody the unity and resilience of African communities.
Among the ten selected writers are six from across the African continent. They are:
- Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza (Zimbabwe)
- Vangile Gantsho (South Africa)
- Nzube Nlebedim (Nigeria)
- Noor Salah Elfaki (Sudan)
- Abdulrazaq Salihu (Nigeria)
- Denoo Edinam Yawo (Ghana)
The other selected writers are:
- Roger Robinson (UK)
- Keston Perry (Trinidad & Tobago)
- Lori L. Tharps (USA)
- Jaimee A. Swift (USA)
About the Writers:
Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza
Simbarashe is a Zimbabwean thriller writer and novelist based in Harare, Zimbabwe. His debut novel manuscript, Freelance, won the Island Prize for Debut African Fiction in 2024. A finalist in the 2018 Africa Book Club Short Story Competition, his work has been featured in The Wrong Patient and Other Stories from Africa anthology, and Transition Magazine Issue 131.
Vangile Gantsho
Vangile is a healer, poet and co-founder of Impepho Press – a Pan Africanist intersectional feminist publishing house. She is the author of two poetry collections: Red Cotton (2018) and Undressing in Front of the Window (2015). She holds an MA from the University Currently Known as Rhodes (UCKR) and is a graduate of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute. In 2018, she was named one of Mail & Guardian’s Top Young 200 South Africans. Her poetry has been published in various literary publications around the globe, including New Daughters of Africa (2019).
Nzube Nlebedim
Nzube is a Nigerian writer and editor. He is the author of At Night Men Take the Lonely Way Back Home, a collection of thirteen creative nonfiction essays. He is the founding editor of The Shallow Tales Review, a digital literary magazine publishing African and Black Literature. His work tackles nostalgia, African diasporic cultural contacts, and the dynamics of 21st century diasporic literatures. Nzube’s essays, short stories and poetry appear in Business Day, The Shallow Tales Review, Afritondo, The James Currey Anthology (vol. 1), Brittle Paper, African Writer, Isele Magazine, The Republic, Olongo Africa, The Kalahari Review, The Journal, Culture Custodian, Afapinen, Counterclock Journal, AFREADA, Entropy, Taint Taint Taint, The Lagos Review, Punocracy, Down River Road, as well as other journals and anthologies.
Noor Salah Elfaki
Noor is an award-winning Sudanese short fiction writer who won first place in the prestigious Altayeb-Salih National Short Stories Competition, the Ghada Literary Awards for Youth, and the Nirvana Literary Award. Her stories, often recognised for their emotional depth and cultural nuance, have been published and honoured both nationally and regionally. She is passionate about amplifying Sudanese voices, particularly advocating for peace, equality, and the rich cultural heritage of Sudan. She also creates content that highlights the struggles and resilience of Sudanese people during the ongoing war. In addition to her literary achievements, she is a guitarist and a final year medical student at the University of Khartoum.
Abdulrazaq Salihu
Abdulrazaq is a Nigerian poet and member of the Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation. He won the SOD Poetry Contest , BPKW Poetry Contest, Poetry Archive Poetry Contest, Masks Literary Magazine Poetry Award, Nigerian Prize for Teen Authors (poetry), Hilltop Creative Writing Award, and others. He has received fellowship and residency from IWE Writers Residency, SPRINng, Frances Thompson Writers Studio and elsewhere. He has his works published/forthcoming in Uncanny, Bacopa, Consequence, South Florida Poetry, Eunoia Review, Strange Horizons, Unstamatic, Bracken, Poetry Quarter(ly), Rogue, B*k, Jupiter Review, Black Moon Magazine, Angime, Grub Street Mag and elsewhere. He enjoys the aesthetics of language and the simplicity of things, and is the author of Constellations (poetry) and Hiccups (prose).
Denoo Edinam Yawo
Yato is a Ghana-based writer, pharmacist and storyteller committed to amplifying African voices and experiences. Through a diverse body of work including fiction, satire and social critique, she captures the complexity of identity, cultural heritage and the socio-political currents shaping contemporary African life. Denoo is dedicated to crafting stories that resonate with authenticity and bridge cultural narratives. Their writing has featured in the Umuofia Books and Arts Anthology, and the Ikenga Issue of Akowdee Magazine.
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Congratulations to all writers on this amazing win!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
